Cosmic Cafe in Dallas

This is the back wall of my daughter's favorite restaurant Cosmic Cafe in Dallas. She's been raving about it for months, and now I get it. It serves good Indian vegetarian meals. The place is covered with funky paintings and all sort of interesting decorations, some hippie like I might add. It reminded me places I visited in Indonesia and Thailand long time ago.

It's on Oak Lawn, known for posh places. But this is definitely laid-back. They also offers meditation and yoga classes daily in the room above the restaurant. 

日本のミュージック、どうやってダウンロードする？

宮﨑駿の「風たちぬ」を見てから、ユーミンを無性に聞きたくなることがあります。Youtubeでこのビデオをたまに聞いているけれど、スマホに音楽だけ入れて、どこでも聞けるようにしたいなと思ってます。日本のミュージックってどんな方法でダウンロードできるのでしょうか？オススメあれば教えて下さい。有料でもちろん構いません。

アンドロイドのを使っているので、Google Playで探してみたけれど、ユーミンどころか日本のミュージックは何も出てこない。iTuneにはJ Popとかkayokyokuとかのジャンルはあるけれど、探している曲はないし。日本だけのシステムかアプか何かあるのだったら、教えてもらえれば嬉しいです。

Dallas Art Show

High-Tech arts were everywhere at Dallas Art Show last week.

There was a cool white LED art (not the one on right). From the distance, it looks like a massive and long light fixture. You wait a couple ten seconds, the lights start flickering and you see birds fly in and out of the screen. Neat surprise yet calming.

Scoop the poop :)

This sign gives me a grin whenever I walk by it on the trail.

Yeah, you know you have to scoop your doggie's poop on the public land. But, no one will be happy to be told that unless they point out that your "doodie".

Look at his eyes...you just have to smile and scoop that poop.

Electricity Transformation - part 6

Summary

Being efficient (= not wasteful) is smart. It means getting more for less. Everyone likes that except the ones benefit from wasteful behaviors. Strong political and public influence from those powerful who benefit have made it difficult for many to see the obvious until now. Well, the time has come. We can see the facts and don’t get fooled anymore.

To make building twice or more efficient, we need aggressive policies and tighter codes for all new build and major renovations. Much higher HVAC and lighting standards will be needed, as well. Industry professionals are ready to put their skills and knowledge to use in order to meet and exceed higher standards. For residential small projects, DIY easy low cost upgrades need to be encouraged with improved kits and materials.

We can overcome initial cost issues for larger upgrades with attractive and transparent financing program like PACE.

As we already have technologies needed for build environment energy efficiency to reduce 1 billion KWh, with right policies and financing, future we want to have will be in our hands.

June 7, 2013

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Electricity Transformation - part 5

Compiled List of New Renewable Energy Sources

In the report “The Long-Term Energy Efficiency Potential”, ACEEE projects three scenarios. Reference Case is business as usual, Advanced Scenario includes penetration of know advanced technologies, and Phenix Scenario includes greater infrastructure improvement and aggressive displacement of existing building stock.

Under Advanced Scenario, residential and commercial demand will reduce by 49% and 36% respectively. Under Phenix Scenario, 61% and 48% respectively. I used 3 billion MWh, 75% of total consumption, half residential and half commercial as base, applied % of reduction to each sector. Reduction appears to be lower, which might be because I have not included other possible reductions from industrial sector.

If we follow Advanced Scenario, we can eliminate coal, natural gas and reduce nuclear. If we follow Phenix scenario, we can eliminate coal, natural gas and nuclear, plus some surplus.

                                    Million MWh                      Advanced Scenario        Phenix Scenario

                                           2012                           2030-2035                       2030-2035

Coal                                      1,517        37%                        0                                      0

Natural Gas                          1,231        30%                        0                                      0

Nuclear                                    769        19%                    769                                      0

Hydropower                            276        7%                      276                                  276

Petroleum                                  23        1%                         0                                      0

Other Gases                              11        < 1%                      0                                      0

Other Renewable                     219        5%                   1191                               2628

       Biomass                              58        1.42%                 203                                     4

       Geothermal                         17        0.41%                   68                                 284

       Solar                                     4         0.11%                 120                                 390

       Wind                                  140        3.46%                 800                               1950

                               

Total Generated                      4046                                  2236                               2904

Demand Reduction                        0                                  1276                                1636

Total required                          4046                                  2770                               2410

                               

Difference                                                                           -534                                494

                                                                  need to come from nuclear?

                                                                                                                               surplus?

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Electricity Transformation - part 4

Problems, Barriers, and Policy Issues

According to McGrow Hill Construction, after 2007 federal law, the Energy Independence and Security Act, building industries have embraced green build. 44% of new commercial construction is green building in 2013. That is expected to increase to 55% in 2016. 22-25% of new residential is green build in 2013, which is expected to increase to 29-38% in 2016. Policy change was the main driver for this transformation. Policies do have huge impact.

The same applies to the other side. As described earlier, fossil fuel industry projects renewable energy stays flat in foreseeable future. That’s what they want for obvious reasons. And they try hard to influence policy makers, media and public to keep it that way. (Edit: As I was finishing up this report, the article came up in bloomberg like to prove the point. “Chemical companies are lobbying the U.S. Congress to limit government use of proposed, tougher green-building codes in the hope that alternative standards may be adopted.”)

Fortunately, more people started to question their tactics, seek facts, and make educated decisions. Although we are far behind compared to many countries, U.S. government and some states have enacted favorable policies for energy efficiency and renewables. New DOE Secretary Moniz emphasized energy efficiency as top priority at his initial speech. I would expect more policies will come in line for us to move forward to reduce energy consumption.

For implementation, initial costs have been a major barrier for green build or improvements. Building owners saw this money out of their pocket and no benefits to their investment. Good news is this perception is changing as well. Commercial PACE is making progress. According to PACE Now, to date, 30 states have PACE enabling legislation. Just recently as last month, even Texas legislature passed the commercial and industrial PACE program for energy and water conservation projects!

While residential PACE program had been stalled, once people see benefits in their offices, stores, schools and wherever they spend most of their daytime, they will start accepting and applying energy reduction behavior and retrofitting to their residences. I believe starting big in commercial sector would have compounding effect. With some incentives, improved technologies and reasonable cost, more would take steps to reduce their energy consumption.

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